Smart Tools

The TV as a Teaching Tool

“Electronic media has taken over the role of teacher, preacher and parent. Media is one of the most powerful and influential educational tools in modern life.” - Fr. Francis B. Lucas, President,
Bayanihan Broadcasting Corporation

It is not uncommon today to hear people asking parents to lessen the time their children spend watching television. TV, according to these groups, has resulted to less time being spent reading, studying or doing other more meaningful and productive activities.

But there are groups turning our fascination with TV into an advantage they can use to educate the youth. Taking note of the big impact television has on viewers, these groups are advocating the use of TV as an effective education tool.

According to them, the TV is an effective teaching tool because:1

  • A TV is accessible.
  • A TV is more cost-effective.
  • TV can help develop listening skills that are especially effective in teaching English.
  • The TV has visual images that make whatever message a show is trying to relay more memorable for the viewers.
  • Creative visual presentation invokes greater interest among young students than ordinary classroom lessons.

Taking note of the advantages the TV presents as an education tool, the government, local groups and international organizations have established channels and launched programs that maximizes TV’s potential.

  1. Knowledge Channel2

    2. Knowledge Channel is the only cable channel in the country that features purely educational shows. Its main goal is to “educate and empower Filipinos.” It is available for free in all public schools nationwide.

    Because of an agreement with the Department of Education, the Knowledge Channel’s programs on Chemistry, History, Physics, English, Math, and Values Education are required viewing for all public school students in the country.

    The channel first went on air in 1999 and is currently available to 2.67 million public school students in 40 provinces in the country.

  2. Kabataan News Network(KNN)3

    3. The KNN is a 30-minute TV program whose content is generated solely by Filipino youth. Because its programs are made and presented by reporters from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, KNN has active bureaus all over the country. According to the Probe Foundation, the group responsible for the program, the aims of KNN are to:

    1. Change how most adults view children
    2. Give the youth a venue to demonstrate what they are capable of
    3. Help educate the Filipino youth

    The program, UNICEF’s “centerpiece for its communication work for adolescents” tackles, everything from light subjects like music trends to serious issues like HIV/AIDS.

  3. USAID4

    4. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is also utilizing the television to help the remote areas of Mindanao. The organization is also providing textbooks and resource materials to selected municipalities in Mindanao (including those in the ARMM, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Zamboanga Sibugay and Sultan Kudarat). One of the group’s main goal is to improve ”instruction in Reading, Math, Science, and English in the elementary schools” of the mentioned provinces.

Sources:
1 Smith, Alfred and Rawley, Lee Ann, “Using TV Commercials to Teach Listening
and Critical Thinking.”http://www.njcu.edu/cill/vol4/smith-rawley.html
1 “Using Trasitional Technologies in the Classroom,”
http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=advantages+of+using+tv+to+teach&prssweb=
Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-500&u=www.linguistics.ucla.edu/teaching/epstein/traditional_
technology.pdf&w=advantages+using+tv+teach&d=Oia3TyQ8NSlg&icp=1&.intl=us
2 Wikipedia, Knowledge Channel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Channel#Knowledge_Channel_Programs:
3 UNICEF, “Philippine youth produce their own TV programming.”
http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/philippines_24030.html
3 Kabataan News Network, http://www.probefound.com/5nup_club_out.htm
4 USAID, http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:t_q_Ik0D-WwJ:www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/
cbj2007/ane/pdf/ph_492-011.pdf+education+tv+philippines&hl=tl&gl=ph&ct=clnk&cd=31